Love From A Star: A BWWM Alien Romance (3 page)

“One
day, when I die you mean?” he asked as he walked away.

“I
won’t allow it,” she said as she turned her back to him.
“Supper will be ready in a few minutes,” she told him.

He
grunted in response and lugged himself up the single flight of wooden
steps. Jalicia heard when his door closed, and she couldn’t
help the escape of a few more tears. She missed her mother and the
times they often spent making dinner, and sitting on the porch
laughing, or raking hay in the barn. Each time she did any of these
activities, she was reminded of the gaping hole she left in her heart
when she died. She wasn’t sure if she would ever get over it,
but being here seemed to be the only way she could.

She had
always wanted to be a medical doctor. She felt her life had to have
meaning, and the best thing she could think of was helping save
lives. She'd had one more year left in medical school when she got
the news. It hadn’t even come from her father, and he was
surprised when she had turned up. Mrs. Jacobs from across the way had
thought she should know, and though they had asked her to pledge her
secrecy, she had known Jalicia would have wanted to be there.
Especially when it was obvious she didn’t have much longer to
live.

It was a
small town in Kentucky, and not much activity took place here. Who
knows, maybe she could wind up being the doctor in town-the only
doctor in town. She smiled at the thought as she rummaged in the
cupboards and the refrigerator, looking for the ingredients to make
supper.

“Seems
I am right on time,” she heard someone say from the door.

She
looked around to see her freckle faced neighbor poking his head
through the kitchen door. “To take out the trash?” she
asked as she looked at him. “It’s right over there.”

“Very
funny,” he said as his entire body emerged into the space. “But
I will, since you are being so awfully nice,” he said as he
walked over and leaned against the counter. “What ya cooking?”

“Ned,
go away,” Jalicia said as she moved about.

“Ouch,”
he said as he winced. “That left an exit wound.” He
slapped his hand over his heart.

Jalicia
laughed at his idiocy. “If only that was enough to drive you
away.” She set the pan on the stove and ignited it.

“You
can’t get rid of me pretty lady,” he said as he grinned.
“Need any help?”

“No,
I’m good thanks,” she responded. “It’s mostly
leftovers anyway.” Ned walked around the kitchen like he either
had something to say but wasn’t sure how to say it, or like
someone with far too much time on their hands and nothing to do with
it. “How’s the academy?” Jalicia asked him.

“It’s
alright. I only like going to the range,” he said and flashed
her a broad grin. She couldn’t help smiling back at him.

“You
do realize you won’t get to use that feature much, right?”
she asked him.

“Yeah
I know,” he responded sadly as he kicked a piece of paper on
the floor and dug his hands into his pocket. “The most action
I’d probably get here is helping old man Bill drive his cattle
across the street. And maybe if I am really lucky, it will cause a
pile up I will have to clear.”

Jalicia
was laughing so hard now she had to stop cooking to gain her
composure. “It isn’t that bad. As a matter of fact it
can’t be bad living in a town where there is no crime to speak
of that needs controlling. You should count your blessings.”

“I
want to be out there making a difference. Maybe I will go to work in
Washington too. Who knows, some day I might wind up being a member of
the FBI or the Secret Service. I don’t know how you came back.
There is nothing to do here but shovel hay and cross cattle.”

“Not
you too,” she said.

“What?”

“Dad
was just on me about going back to Washington,” she said as her
eyes drifted in the direction of his room.

“I
think he is right. You should go back,” he encouraged. “You
would make a great doctor.”

“That’s
what I keep telling her,” Samuel said as he made a
reappearance.

“Great.
Now I have the both of you ganging up on me,” she said as she
went back to cooking. “Dad, could you please set the table?”

Samuel
just rolled his eyes as he took the dishes from the cupboard and laid
them on the table next to the silverware. No one made any further
comment as Jalicia scooped a serving of vegetables onto the three
plates. She had grown accustomed to Ned who had become like a fixture
since she returned. He had been her childhood friend, and she
remembered the days they would go exploring by the creek, or chase
butterflies and dissect frogs. But she was no longer that girl, and
Ned was not the scrawny kid she had remembered. He had matured into a
handsome man that even the freckles on his face seemed to give him
added personality and charm; the same freckles that had been like a
plague to him all throughout middle school.

He no
longer saw Jalicia as before, and he had tried on several occasions
to get her to go to dinner or to a barn dance, but she had declined
on the grounds that she didn’t want to leave her father home
alone. He knew she was only making excuses, but he hadn’t
pushed her. Instead he had satisfied himself with being her friend
during the interim. He had hoped she would have come around, but she
hadn’t, so now he was like a part of the family. Besides, he
had Maggie now, and he seemed to adore her. Still, he found the time
to visit Jalicia as often as possible, under the guise of safety for
herself and her father. Though safety from what would be anyone’s
guess.

“This
tastes even better second time around,” Samuel said as he dug
into his meatloaf.

“See,
you need me,” she said as she smiled at him.

“I
know how to make a meatloaf,” he argued.

“Forget
it. I’d never forgive myself if I left and anything happened to
you,” she told him.

Samuel
knew his daughter was stubborn, so he resigned from the task of
getting her back to Washington for the night.

Ned sat
there looking at Jalicia; he had liked her from the start. Her
parents had bought the farm next to his when she was just about five
years old. He had wandered over to say hello, fascinated that her
skin was different from his, and that she looked so different than
anyone else he had ever met before. His cheeks colored as his memory
embarrassed him. He hadn’t been out of the town before then,
and he had thought she had gotten burnt. He had asked her about it,
and she had told him that was how her skin was.

“Oh,
you’re black,” the small voice said as it echoed from
twenty years ago.

“Yes,
and you are white,” she had said.

He had
been fascinated by her from then on, as were so many other children
who had never actually met a black person before. She had been quite
the sensation, but it wasn’t just because of her dark skin; she
was the most loving child, and everyone wanted to be her friend. Ned
had called dibs on her, and she almost slapped the white off of him
when he had told her about it years later.

“You
don’t own me,” the younger Jalicia had said.

“I
know, but you live closest to me. It’s only right that I am
number one on your list of friends. I didn’t want anyone coming
too close to take you away, so I called dibs,” he had said.

Jalicia
had laughed then, and her curly hair shook as she did. The two had
been close ever since.

“What
are you smiling at?” she asked him when she saw the smirk on
his face.

“I
was just remembering when we were children. I asked you if you had
been burnt,” he said as he laughed. “I can’t
believe what a hillbilly I must have sounded like then.”

Both
Jalicia and Samuel laughed at Ned. “Yes you did,” Samuel
said. “I have to admit, before then, I had never been described
as that before.”

“Man,
I need to go out and see more of the world,” he said, and then
slapped his hand over his mouth when he saw the look Samuel gave
Jalicia. “Sorry,” he mouthed as she shot daggers at him
with his eyes.

“Help
me clear the dishes,” she told him as she scraped her chair
back.

Just as
they were placing the last of them in the sink there was a honk
outside. Jalicia moved the curtains and then turned to Ned. “It’s
Maggie,” she said.

“Shoot,
I forgot she wanted my help. See you around toadsy,” he said as
he ruffled her hair and reminded her of the nickname he had given her
since their days of dissecting frogs. “Thanks for supper,”
he said as his voice trailed off.

She
looked around and saw that she was alone once more; her father must
have gone back to his room. He slept early and rose early like the
sun, and she used the silence to catch up on reading, the news or her
thoughts. Her eyes read more into the soap suds accumulating around
the dishes as her hands slithered over the slippery surface of the
dinnerware. Then they searched beyond the farm and into the darkness
for a greater purpose she was sure was out there. She knew her father
wanted more for her than this, but how could she have abandoned him.
She had been the only child to Ruth and Samuel Guthrie, and she had
felt it her duty to help run the farm that had provided her with the
means to make it to college in the first place. Samuel had no one
else, and she would not turn her back on him. Ever!

Still,
she couldn’t help thinking about how life would have been if
she had stayed in Washington. She had only one year left in medical
school before she would start her internship at Memorial. She had
been looking forward to it, and then her dreams had been cut short
when she received the phone call. She hadn’t thought twice
about deferring her remaining time in the program. Hopefully she
could go back, but her family came first, so she left college, and
she left Aaron.

He had
been her doting boyfriend of two years, and it had pained her to end
the relationship, but Washington was too far from Kentucky to
maintain anything and she had thought it best if they made a clean
cut. She had thought about him often then, but time was both a cruel
and gentle teacher, and soon the pain of abandoning him was replaced
by grief, and then responsibility. So lost was she in thought she
didn’t even realize she had finished washing up until she
splashed water on her blouse. She finished wiping the counter and
then looked over to the garbage bag.

“I
guess it’s just you and me tonight,” she said to the bin.
She walked over and reached down to tie a knot at the top before
heaving the bag from the bin and onto the floor. She pulled it along
behind her until she got to the door. Just as she opened it, she saw
a flash of light in the distance. She stood there, waiting for
something to happen, but nothing did. Maybe it was a meteor rock,
like Smallville, she thought as she smiled and stepped onto the
porch.

She
closed her eyes as her feet landed on the dirt at the bottom of the
steps. She liked feeling the cool evening breeze as it caressed her
skin, and she sucked in a breath of air as she eased herself into it.
Then she reopened her eyes and walked to the dumpster at the back of
the house. Maybe she could burn it in the morning. She turned and was
heading back to the house when she happened to look back to where she
had seen the flash before. Now she could make out a red light
blinking in the distance.

Jalicia’s
heart rate increased as she squinted in the dark, hoping to get a
better look at what might be out there. She couldn’t see
anything. “Oh well,” she thought as she walked back up
the steps, but something kept pulling her attention to the light in
the distance. She heaved an exasperated sigh and went inside for a
flashlight. And the baseball bat. “Not like anything ever
happens here,” she said under her breath as she agreed with
Ned’s earlier words.

She
opened the door once more and stepped out into the night. With
cautious steps, bated breath and a steadily increasing heart rate,
she drifted into the night towards the light. It seemed to have a
hypnotic hold on her as she forgot all else and maintained eye
contact with it. The closer she got, the more she was able to see
that it was a vehicle of some sort. Instantly, she thought someone
might be injured, and that there had been an accident. She started
running now. She had had only one year left in medical school; she
had passed all the basics of CPR and checking and sustaining vitals.
She dropped the bat, danger all but forgotten, as the only thought
that possessed her mind was of someone lying in the wreck.

Her feet
slowed the closer she got to the crash site. It was too far into the
clearing for it to be a truck. What would anyone be doing so far out?
She looked back now to where she had let the bat fall, and
contemplated going back for it.

Help,”
she heard someone say from the site.

Someone
was there. And alive too. Jalicia charged forward once more, not
stopping to notice the make and model of the vehicle that was
obviously strange in appearance.

“Where
are you?” she asked as she knelt and peered under the wreck.
She didn’t hear anything else, other than a crackling sound and
some static, like it was coming from some sort of radio. “Hello?”
she called once more, but there was nothing.

She got
on her stomach and began to squeeze under the mess, until she found
some room to stretch out more. She looked around her frantically for
the voice that had called to her before. “Hello?” she
called once more as she looked around. And then she started, when she
saw him in the corner. But even as she did, she was rooted to the
spot. Even more alarming than the red liquid running down his
forehead, was the fact that he wasn’t human at all. He couldn’t
be.

Jalicia
took one unsure step after another until she was standing over what
might be another life form. He looked human, except that he was
green, and had webbed feet that sort of looked human too. And then
there was his skin that glowed in the flickering light. She knelt
there, unable to move for a few seconds as fear and panicked gripped
her. The doctor in her wanted to help, but she wasn’t sure what
it was, or if her own life would be in danger if she did. So she
remained there, staring, until it opened its piercing black eyes, and
then shrunk back.